A unifying framework for selective routing problems

Abstract

We present a unifying framework for Selective Routing Problems (SRPs) through a systematic analysis. The common goal in SRPs is to determine an optimal vehicle route to serve a subset of vertices while covering another subset. They arise in diverse fields such as logistics, public health, disaster response, and urban development. To establish a unifying framework for different but related problems, we associate the notion of service with coverage and argue that routing is a tool of service. We classify SRPs according to their selectiveness degree and emphasize the breadth and depth of this problem in terms of its characteristics. This SRP framework helps us identify research gaps as well as potential future research areas. We present a generic mathematical model, use it to describe the connections among these problems and identify some identical problems presented under different names.